Chapter 11 — A Long Road Ahead

Amber's hands never stopped. She deftly skewered the dressed game on a long stick and propped it beside the fire, then glanced at Gao Yang. "I'm telling you, I really can't hunt. I may be half elf, but from the year I could remember things I've lived among humans. An old thief raised me..."

"Then this skill of yours..."

"I can't hunt, but I can steal chickens," Amber said, smiling like a child who had just robbed someone's ancestral grave and could still chat amiably with the bereaved. "This is all from back then."

Gao Yang: "..."

Heidi, overhearing, knit her brows slightly. "Truly vulgar."

Amber wagged a finger. "Yes, yes, yes, I'm vulgar. Who made me a thief? I can only lift a few coppers from a passerby's pocket now and then—not like you nobles, sitting in your castles and dipping openly into your subjects' pockets."

No sooner had Miss Amber spoken than Sir Byron's longsword rang out of its sheath and came to rest against her neck.

The half-elf broke into a cold sweat on the spot.

Gao Yang waved a hand, motioning Byron to put the sword away, then looked at Amber curiously. "What I really wonder is—never mind anything else, with a mouth like yours, how is it you haven't been beaten to death yet?"

Before the half-elf could say a word, Gao Yang was already mimicking her tone, wagging his head as he spoke: "First-rate at running for your life, isn't that right?"

Amber: "..."

"All right, put aside whatever class grievances and ideological conflicts you have for now—we're all in the same boat," Gao Yang said with a sigh, casually picking up a fruit from beside him and raising it to his lips. "Everyone recover your strength first. Those of you who use magic, make haste to meditate and restore your mana. We set out before noon. We've already spent a night underground; we can't waste the whole day ahead of us as well."

"Betty, put that down for now," Rebecca said, glancing at her little maid and kindly reminding her. "You won't be needing it."

Betty looked at her mistress, then at the frying pan in her hands, as though caught in hesitation.

Gao Yang was curious. "Say, why have you been carrying that pan the whole time?"

Betty seemed somewhat in awe of Gao Yang. She shrank her neck and gripped the pan's handle tightly. "Mrs. Hanson told me that from now on I'm in charge of frying sausages and slices of bread... with this pan."

"Mrs. Hanson managed the castle kitchens," Heidi explained to Gao Yang in a low voice. "But she's dead now."

Gao Yang sighed, looking at the girl with the few freckles on her face.

"This pan is yours. From now on it will always be yours," he said. "For now you can set it aside and come eat."

(Second update is here!!)